College access has become less of a problem for students in poverty than completion, finds a new William T. Grant Foundation study, an update to a 1988 report on inequity.
Among students who attended community college from 2002 to 2012, only 20 percent earned a bachelor’s degree within eight years of graduating from high school. Half of those who left college reported money was the main reason they did not continue.
With 60 percent of incoming college students failing placement exams, the report recommends better alignment between the standards of high school and college so students enter better prepared.
